Bill Gunning, the former Traffic Manager of London Country Bus Service, became the new company's managing director. The company was renamed Kentish Bus & Coach in April 1987, and a new maroon and cream livery, loosely based on the colours of the erstwhile Colchester Corporation Transport, replaced the former London Country green.[3][4] The head office was relocated to Northfleet.

The company expanded its London operations significantly with a series of contract wins and acquisitions. The largest win was of London routes 22A, 22B and 55, taken from London Forest on 20 January 1990 with 43 new dual-door Northern Counties bodied Leyland Olympians were bought to operate the routes.[11] Outside of London, the competing operations of Northfleet-based Mini Metro were taken over in January 1990.[12]

In February 1992, Kentish Bus purchased seven contracted routes and 50 vehicles from Boro'line.[13][14] These were initially operated from the former Boro'line garage in Crayford; the majority later moved to Dartford, although some also operated from the former London Forest Ash Grove garage, which was also used for routes 22A, 22B and 55.[3]

In early 1993, Kentish Bus gained work in the south-east London and ordered 65 new buses to cover the workings; this took the fleet size to 352, more than double its size in 1986.[3] One of the routes gained was route 19, for which the company leased refurbished AEC Routemasters from London Regional Transport. Kentish Bus was the first operator other than a former London Buses subsidiary, to win a contract for a Routemaster operated route, and introduced its maroon and cream livery in place of London red.[15][16]

By August 1993, Kentish Bus had become the largest independent operator of London contracts.[15] Further expansion came in November 1993, when two London contracts and six minor commercial routes, along with 23 buses, were taken over from Transcity Buses.[3]

When Maidstone & District was also acquired by British Bus in April 1995, the three companies were put under the control of a single holding company, Invictaway, which was based at Maidstone & District's head office in Maidstone.[17][18] A new livery of green and yellow was also introduced to Kentish Bus.[17]